Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles pulled in a massive 18.3 million viewers last night in its series premiere, which I'm sure put a lot of smiles on the faces over at FOX.  However, tonight will be the real indicator: Will the new Terminator be a success?  Last night's episode benefited from a football lead-in and a massive promotional effort from FOX.  We'll see just how many of those 18 million viewers tune back in tonight for the second episode.  The we can determine the show's staying power.  If viewers liked what they saw last night, though, tonight's second episode will not disappoint – it's better than the premiere. 

Recap:

John, Sarah and Cameron have shacked up in a runned down house in Los Angeles.  The goal of the episode: find new identities, IDs, back stories, etc.  They need paperwork to both disappear and get into the system.  John is antsy – he's been stuck at home for three straight days with strict orders not to leave.  Sarah has an old friend named Enrique who used to be the best identity forger around.  First, Cameron takes Sarah to where she believes some human resistance members from the future are living – they can help them out with money and weapons.  Once there, though, they find the fighters dead.  A terminator is there, however, and a fight ensues.  Cameron chases him through the streets, but it's Sarah who eventually delivers the harshest blow, hurdling a stolen motorcycle at him and taking out his feet.  Cameron crosses the street to deliver a death blow, but she's hit by a car.  The terminator gets away.  Cameron explains that this terminator's orders were to kill the resistance members and he doesn't know about John or Sarah. 

They go see Enrique, but he's retired.  He sends them to his nephew.  Meanwhile, John gets fed up and leaves the house.  He goes to the mall and marvels at all of the new technology.  In a computer store, he looks on the internet and searches about himself.  He finds that he, his mom and Cameron were pronounced dead after the incident at the bank.  He also finds the address of his mom's former fiance (Dennis from 30 Rock).  Later, John goes to the ex-fiance's house and looks around.  He weirdly beats up the fiance after he's discovers in the home.  At Enrique's nephew's, the price for new identities is 20 grand.  She doesn't have this money.  Sarah learns about 9/11. 

Cameron, John and Sarah go back to the site of the resistance fighter's death to find the goods Cameron believes are there.  The terminator from before has booby-trapped the safe, and after they take the guns and money, another fight ensues.  The good guys get away.  Sarah and Cameron pay Enrique's nephew and they get everything they need.  Their last name is now Baum.  On their way out, Sarah hears the nephew say something to one of his buddies in Spanish.  Cameron and John go and register for school the next day. 

Sarah goes and surprises Enrique at his home the next day, pointing her gun at him.  She asks him if they gave him up.  She heard his nephew call him a rat.  Cameron appears and shoots him, telling Sarah that he was possibly lying.  It turns out that Enrique gave Agent Ellison a call after Sarah resurfaced. 


Thoughts:

A really good episode.  I didn't mention it in the recap, but perhaps the most important nugget of Terminator mythology in the episode was that maybe the main reason Cameron took John and Sarah into the future is that Sarah actually dies of cancer in 2005.  This keeps in line with what happened in Terminator 3.  At the end of the episode, Sarah gets some blood work done at a hospital.

Summer Glau is really good as Cameron.  The robot stuff is great.  The best scene happens as she waits outside the nephew's place for Sarah and a gang banger chick comes and stands next to her, assessing Cameron.  Cameron subtly starts to mimic her body language.  Great stuff.

A dead pan sense of humor began to emerge in this episode that was nice to see.  Sarah can be pretty cynically funny.  None of the accent issues I noticed in the pilot with Lena Headey were there.  She's growing on me as Sarah Connor. 

The action wasn't as epic as in the pilot, but still abundant and still good.  Cameron getting plowed by that car was awesome, and I don't think I'll ever get tired of terminator vs. terminator combat. 


-Oscar Dahl, BuddyTV Senior Writer
(Image Courtesy of FOX)